HTC will be allowed to continue exporting its newest phone to the US in spite of an attempt by Apple to keep some of its handsets out of the country during a long-running patent dispute between the two groups.
The US International Trade Commission will continue to investigate whether some of the Taiwanese group’s phones are violating an Apple-owned patent but the US group’s unsuccessful attempt to immediately halt imports of the phones represents a small victory for HTC, according to analysts.
HTC’s sales have been slipping, and any delay in the US to the launch of its latest models would have brought them into more direct competition with new phones expected from Samsung and Apple this year.